One of the Conservative party's contributions to our country has been keeping people who think you can measure integration through skin colour out of office - what next, are they only going to be lukewarm on the property-owning democracy?

A post shared on social media falsely claims that tumours are created by the body as a “bag” to contain toxins and that biopsies can “release those toxins”. Incorrect claims about cancer can cause harm if people make treatment decisions based on them.

'Assisted dying is not compulsory, and if your religious convictions require that you do not take advantage of this Bill, then please have compassion, and enable us who do not have your convictions to have the right to choose.' Baroness Featherstone.

With Reform UK saying it would be reasonable to pay the Taliban to return migrants to Afghanistan, how many Britons this would be acceptable? Acceptable: 17% Unacceptable: 61% % acceptable by party Reform: 35% Con: 23% Lab/Lib Dem: 7-13% yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...

fundamentally the problem is that if you think "hotels are where I stay on holiday and I like being on holiday so living in a hotel must be fun and it's not fair others get to do it and not me" then you have the intellectual reasoning of a little child and it's going to be hard to engage with you

These are wonderful! www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/ast...

I’m staggered a landlord was put in charge of the Renters Rights Bill. It’s like putting a fox in charge of the Chickens Rights Bill. inews.co.uk/news/homeles...

That is shockingly poor journalism @mattdathan.bsky.social. A textbook example of deploying framing bias and contextomy in a desparate attempt to sell more newspapers and generate more clicks.

"Is Britain about to blow?" asks Matt Goodwin promoted a two hour special event on the subject. Their greasy desperation for violence and carnage, so they can profit off it, is so disgusting.

Exactly one year ago today, Russia struck Ohmatdyt, Ukraine's largest children's oncology hospital. The international response was weak to nonexistent, allowing Russia to continue its attacks on civilians, including children, with increasing brutality.

Absolutely incredible turnout for Budapest Pride! So proud of all the organizers, including some old friends, who estimate hundreds of thousands— major embarrassment to Orban

This interview’s so sharp on precarious funding, systemic injustice in anti-trafficking & disconnects with community realities. Real privilege to speak with @christianashnc.bsky.social @kiconco.bsky.social & Sophie Otiende & hear their critiques & alternative visions. @beyondslavery.bsky.social

⚡️'Dead and wounded everywhere' — Russia strikes Dnipro with ballistic missiles, hits civilian train. Russia launched a deadly missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on June 24, striking civilian infrastructure and a passenger train, local officials reported.

1/ A bit of warning here before we’re all seduced by the practicalities of a “BritCard” digital ID. Although the tech heavy lifting may be mostly in place, the safeguards and protections for the vulnerable - particularly undocumented migrants are not.

The conditions that have led to what’s happening in the US today exist in democracies around the world. They are an inevitable outcome of our collective failure to adapt to fundamental changes in the information ecosystem on which our democracies were originally built.

Nailed it.

In completely unrelated news, Margin Call is an entertaining film. www.rottentomatoes.com/m/margin_call

Trump: "The reason we're not talking about tariffs with Russia is because we're not doing business essentially with Russia". US-Russia trade totalled $3.5 billion in 2024. US-Lesotho trade totalled $240 million in 2024, yet Trump imposed a 50% tariff on the impoverished country.

Excellent discussion on the “crisis of masculinity” www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Adolescence on Netflix is superb. Surely the best television in recent years. An examination of male rage against women from perspectives of psychologists, parents, police and children.

I visited Bucha. It brings home the nature of this conflict, which is an aggressor seeking to eliminate the sovereignty of Ukraine. Russia has inflicted horrific human rights abuses, including war crimes. Trying to be even handed as a strategy for peace is a mistake and will only embolden Russia.

I highly recommend reading this piece - ‘Nigel Farage feels real’: why young British men are drawn to Reform www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I don't know how to process these headlines anymore to be honest.

This is Marco Rubio explaining how the USA promised to defend Ukraine forever if they got rid of their nuclear arsenal left after the Soviet Union fell. This is why lil marco was sinking into the couch. He was hoping we wouldn’t find it…so don’t RT right now this very second.

Times Square 🇺🇸🇺🇦✊

A feat of diplomatic legerdemain by Starmer. news.sky.com/story/donald...

Modern slavery is not the consequence of a handful of bad actors. Rather, it’s due to deeply entrenched social, economic & political systems. Therefore, we need to approaches that aim to change the systems that perpetuate abuses. See how we achieve & measure systems change. 👀 ➡️ bit.ly/43kYXSN

A Financial Times investigative documentary has found evidence that Russian executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war are not isolated incidents but are likely to be part of a broader pattern that points to a systematic policy. Watch the full documentary here: on.ft.com/3Qs7oDW

Recording of Harris against Trump in the election debate. “She called it.” @newsagents.bsky.social

And I was worried about the asteroid.

A good summary of UK humanitarian aid to Ukraine. There are 12m Ukranians who need humanitarian aid and more than 10m people are displaced, so there is a huge need for more funding, especially considering the demise of USAID.

I'm hearing a lot from the media NGO sector about the impact of USAID cuts. A lot of small investigative media organisations across the globe are facing imminent closure as the funding they've budget for has vanished overnight, and the funder community has no capacity to absorb the shock.

Genuinely horrifying. 20 million people receive HIV antiviral treatment from the program annually. Mothers with HIV would transmit it to their infants at birth if not for perinatal antiviral treatment. This should be resumed as soon as possible. Every day of delay means more lives lost.

This is a public health nightmare in the works. Nobody voted for this. "The Trump administration has instructed organizations in other countries to stop disbursing H.I.V. medications purchased with U.S. aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and are sitting in local clinics."

Thank the lord for Private Eye

This is promising. Start by improving your IT culture and process so that’s it’s conducive to speed and innovation. www.gov.uk/government/n...

This is the most useful and interesting weather account I’ve followed on any platform.

THIS @404media.co story shows exactly why we need the social web. www.404media.co/meta-is-bloc...

Civil War is rather good. On Prime now: watch.amazon.co.uk/detail?gti=a...

It's important to remember that AI is so much more than chatbots. We're wiring it into business automation, productivity tools, medical tools, dating apps as well as the automated publishing of news articles. Data poisoning (whether unintentional or not) is a risk.

Recent events related to certain oligarchs should raise concern about AI models created by companies whose ethics procedures are secondary to the will of a CEO with a political agenda. Bias and disinformation which is purposefully designed into AI models can be quite opaque and difficult to spot.

This appears to be the Truss variant of the Streisand effect.

​Names and faces of people who died crossing the Channel in deadliest year on record Harrowing piece by colleague @daveburke12.bsky.social www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

A quick way to increase productivity in UK would be for the UK government to open up the Postcode Address File. Expensive licensing is a barrier to innovation, and just adds so much cost and bureaucracy to so many services intrinsic to UK businesses.

Meta confirms they plan to add tons of AI-generated users to Facebook and Instagram They will have bios, profile pics and can share content (via Financial Times)

⚡️ Russian companies increasingly using Bitcoin amid sanctions, Reuters reports. Russian companies are increasingly using Bitcoin and other digital currencies for international payments in response to Western sanctions, Reuters reported on Dec. 25.

A rather lovely Ukranian Christmas story read by Stephen Fry. (If you have a spare 8 minutes in your busy schedule.) www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Must watch Channel 4 report on the mass graves in Syria, with over 100,000 dead estimated to be buried in just one site. The challenge to forensically document these sites will be huge. www.channel4.com/news/true-sc...